It’s really great to see so much effort being channeled towards innovation in international maternal and child health. The text4baby service was launched just one month ago. Our last post was about a USAID-supported mHealth eConference for maternal and child health. This post is about a maternal health innovations competition put on by Ashoka.

There are now nine days left to enter the Healthy Mothers, Strong World competition, billed as THE NEXT GENERATION OF IDEAS FOR MATERNAL HEALTH. The best innovations will be awarded prizes totaling US$600,000. More information is available at the competition website.

Two early entry prizes have already been awarded. One of the prizes went to Aadharbhut Prasuti Sewa Kendra, a privately-run birthing center led by nurse-midwives in Nepal. It is described “the first and only initiative taken by Nepalese nurses in a low resource setting, where they have never ever taken such a step independently”. The other prize went to Maternova, an portal for innovations in maternal and neonatal health that we first reported on in November 2008.

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Innovation and  social impact for mental health – check out the latest Changemakers competition. There are entries from across the world, the competition closes in 6 days – please spread the word:

“Ashoka’s Changemakers, in partnership with the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, is launching the “Rethinking Mental Health: Improving Community Wellbeing” competition in order to explore innovations that allow individuals, families, communities, and society to move past narrow perceptions of mental health and expand our understanding and collective involvement in finding solutions. The winners of this Changemakers collaborative competition will be those entries that best meet the following criteria”:

• Innovation: This is the knock-out test. The entrant must describe a systematic and/or disruptive innovation in the field of mental health. The innovation should be a unique model of change, demonstrating a substantial difference from other initiatives in the field and ready for large-scale expansion.
• Social Impact: It is important that the innovation provides a system-changing solution toward improving individual and community wellbeing. The entry must demonstrate impact on the target population it addresses, either a specific underserved community or the society at large. Some innovations will have proven success at a small level, while others will have grown to engage millions of people. Regardless of the level of demonstrated impact, it is important that the innovation has a potential for application globally. This will be judged by considering the innovation’s potential for scale and replication, in addition to the entrant’s ability to formulate a clear “road map” to reaching larger goals.
• Sustainability: For an innovation to be truly effective it must have a long-term plan for securing financial backing and community support. Entries should describe not only how they are currently financing their work, but also how they plan to finance their work in the future. The most successful entrants go beyond discussing whether or not they will charge for services and describe a business plan. They should also demonstrate that they have strong partnerships and support networks to address an ongoing need, and to aid in scalability and the maintenance of a clear financial strategy.

Big congratulations to our friend José Gómez-Márquez (who blogs at Little Devices that Could) for a well deserved award – MIT Tech Review’s Humanitarian of the Year, part of 2009 Young Innovators under 35. Go right now and read the full article (1st para excerpt below):

“José Gómez-Márquez’s lab at MIT seems to be part toy store, part machine shop, and part medical cente­r. Plastic toys are scattered across the bench tops, along with a disassembled drugstore pregnancy test, all manner of syringes, and a slew of fake body parts. Coffee filters have been transformed into paper-based diagnostics; a dime-store helicopter provides the design for a new asthma inhaler; even a toilet plunger has been put to use, rigged with tubes and glue to form a makeshift centrifuge.”

Related post: 7 Steps for Building Low Cost Technologies for Global Health

Thanks to Tyler from Ashoka for sending the below synopsis. Great stuff, I’ll try to post more detail when I am back, in the meantime read the full post at Changemakers – Simple Solutions Nudging Extraordinary Change. “A simple piece of cloth or a heap of compost can redirect the course of a community’s health and wellbeing…two winners are demonstrating how everyday items can drastically improve access to wholesome foods and lifesaving hygiene…”

Fact 1: Eleven cent sanitary cloth napkins help 20,000 women in India safely manage their menstruation cycles.

Fact 2: A community-driven waste management in Peru inspires 95% of their community to take control of their garbage and recycling.

Fact 3: 700 Venezuelan children have trained as oral health promoters, providing educational and preventive dentistry programs in their own schools.

What do all these facts have in common?

They are all the winning innovative entries in Ashoka’s Changemakers competition, “Designing for Better Health.” Sponsored by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, 335 entrants entered to provide a variety of innovative design solutions to address complex issues in healthcare – how can our choices be shaped to help us make the best ones?  After narrowing down the list to 10 finalists, the public voted for these three as their favorites.

The winners are compelling examples of “nudges” – innovative little pushes – that empower people to make better decisions regarding their own health and the health of others.

Thanks to Jose for sending this announcement from the Inter American Development Bank – deadline is June 30th:

“In the Science and Technology Division of the Inter-American Development Bank we are looking to support the implementation of pilot projects that use innovation to improve the quality of life and the economic and social inclusion of People with Disabilities in Latin America and the Caribbean. You can apply for funding (for up to US$ 50,000) by submitting your proposal by June 30, 2009. “

Check out their blog and the full announcement.

On a related note, check out the University of Washington’s own initiative in the same area.